Day: March 29, 2013

Recently, I wrote that Dr. Ben Carson‘s 15 minutes of fame as a conservative superstar were ticking away. Maybe I need to check my watch because I may have overestimated how soon the Carson Flame-Out is coming.

Carson’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Convention was well received and he placed seventh in a presidential straw poll despite having no political experience. He says he may run for president if it is God’s will.

If he does, he’s going to have to learn Mitt Romney’s lesson and not say what he really thinks. Appearing on Hannity, the not-so-good doctor responded to a question about same-sex marriage:

HANNITY:All right, last question, we have the issue of the Supreme Court dealing with two issues involving gay marriage. I’ve asked you a lot of questions. I’ve never asked you that, what are your thoughts?

CARSON:Well, my thoughts are that marriage is between a man and a woman. It’s a well-established, fundamental pillar of society and no group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality. It doesn’t matter what they are. They don’t get to change the definition. So he, it’s not something that is against gays, it’s against anybody who wants to come along and change the fundamental definitions of pillars of society. It has significant ramifications.

A guy who doesn’t know what to ask and another guy who doesn’t know how to answer.

Well, that’s awkward, but I can’t say I’m surprised by Carson’s intolerance. His egotism and vanity has already been well-established and now we can add cocky intolerance to the mix. It’s a trait I’ve seen in other doctors. They dislike being corrected because they dislike being told they got something wrong. Their yardstick of success is how often they are right. Carson was the first neurosurgeon to successful separate conjoined twins and if he had done nothing else, that would be a good enough reason to add some swagger in his step.

When accomplishing what seems impossible is what you specialize in, it must become easy to start believing even if you’re not God, you can handle his job when he takes a day off.

Carson wouldn’t be the first good Christian whose religious beliefs were overruled by his conservative beliefs. He certainly sounds like just another cowardly politician trying to spin away a brain fart as he backed away from his remarks with an apology qualified with the usual caveats of his remarks being “misunderstood” and “out of context.”

“I think in terms of what was said on Sean Hannity’s show, that was taken completely out of context and completely misunderstood in terms of what I was trying to say,” Carson told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “As a Christian, I have a duty to love all people and that includes people who have other sexual orientations, and I certainly do, and never had any intention of offending anyone… If anyone was offended, I apologize to you.”

This is the risk you take when you only talk to people who already agree with you. Carson is not as skilled in front of a camera and he is with a scalpel. He’s unprepared to talk about hot button topics where his disdain for “political correctness” allows him to fall into the trap of saying what he really believes even when what he believes is toxic to his political ambitions.

Doc Carson is not changing his Facebook profile pic, so don’t ask.

Don’t you love it when someone says they’re sorry (but not really) if you misunderstood what they said and you took offense? Doesn’t it make it your fault for being so darned thin-skinned. Carson knows what he means. Why’s everybody else got a problem with that? Oh, If only those homosexuals would stop agitating for the same rights heterosexuals have. You know, the same way interracial couples wanted their offensive to God and nature marriages to be legally recognized. Craziness!

Maybe I was slightly off on how long Carson’s time in the spotlight was going to last, but it seems I was really off about his future as a politician. Carson has already mastered the key skill to being a successful politician. He’s great at looking people in the eye and lying to their face.